


something there (that wasn't there before)

by our0_boros



Category: Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Cosmic Lessons, Disney Movies, Karate, M/M, Multiverse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The Fantasy Version of a Bottle Episode
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:08:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29643483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/our0_boros/pseuds/our0_boros
Summary: “LaRusso?”Daniel’s face whips toward the ground, where Johnny is looking up at him, pulling himself up to rest on his elbows. His voice is uncertain, vulnerable, and his eyes are big. Sweat drips off his forehead.For once in his life, Daniel is speechless.The static glow pulsing through the air around them intensifies, and the wrenching feeling in Daniel’s gut worsens, and, with his eyes still locked on Johnny’s, everything fades to black.It's the most pivotal moment of the All-Valley, and time freezes as Daniel and Johnny are transported into an alternate universe and forced to play out the events of "Beauty of the Beast"- the universe's idea of a cosmic joke, probably. If they're ever going to get back to the real world, they're going to have to learn their lesson: but what lesson is it? And why them, anyway?
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 20
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> warning: this is my first ever fic! this isn't exactly a slow burn, but there is a fair amount of build-up. i'll try to update regularly; i have about 8 chapters written already so i'll post them over the next couple days. 
> 
> this fic was inspired by a post by @nadianecromancer on tumblr (sorry, i don't know how to insert links here), where mr. miyagi takes in johnny and daniel tries to teach him kata- it instantly made me think of the "something there" scene from beauty and the beast, so i tried desperately to come up with a way to write a karate kid beauty and the beast au. however, because i was unwilling to compromise on 1) the period piece fantasy setting, and 2) the karate, we ended up with this weird fantasy multiverse thing. i hope you like it!

It’s all happening so fast- Kreese’s smug glare across the mat, the furor of the crowd, the bright fluorescent lights beating down on him. God, Daniel’s leg hurts. 

Then, Johnny coming toward him-

Then, the kick lands (Daniel feels more than he sees it)-

Then, the thud of the other boy hitting the mat-

Then, everything stops. The silence is almost painful in its suddenness and severity, the quiet dripping of blood and sweat hitting the ground the only noise in the room, and Daniel looks around wildly. The entire arena is frozen, suspended in their moment of frantic energy, halfway out of their seats as they prepared to jump up and cheer. 

As he looks around, the air begins to shimmer, and there’s a strange twisting feeling in Daniel’s gut- like his insides are being run through a taffy-pulling machine- and all of a sudden he feels very, very afraid. 

“LaRusso?” 

Daniel’s face whips toward the ground, where Johnny is looking up at him, pulling himself up to rest on his elbows. His voice is uncertain, vulnerable, and his eyes are big. Sweat drips off his forehead. 

For once in his life, Daniel is speechless. 

The static glow pulsing through the air around them intensifies, and the wrenching feeling in Daniel’s gut worsens, and, with his eyes still locked on Johnny’s, everything fades to black.


	2. Chapter 2

When Daniel blinks his eyes open again, he’s certain he’s dreaming, or maybe dead. Maybe he didn’t land that kick after all, he thinks to himself, maybe Johnny beat him so bad that his brain entered a state of extreme delirium, and now he’s in a coma, with his mom crying over his body in a hospital bed. That’ll teach Johnny, he thinks hysterically. Show a guy a little sportsmanship, why don’t ya? Would serve him right, to walk around with Daniel’s blood on his hands for the rest of his life. Maybe he’ll be so broken up about it that he’ll turn into one of those sad old guys who buy the same shitty beer at the same shitty bar and get turned down by the waitresses every night. The thought makes Daniel laugh, vindictively. 

But with every moment of consciousness, Daniel’s mind clears, and the sensations around him seem more and more real. The grass tickling his skin, the breeze on his face, the birds chirping in the trees… 

As he pushes up and looks around, he realizes that he’s lying in a field, big and wide and beautiful. The sun dips low into the valley expanding out in front of him, bathing the landscape in a warm wash of color. The air is crisp and clean, and it tastes sweet when he breathes in: it’s nothing like the salty press of the breeze that washes in from the beaches in California, or the oil-slick gasoline taste of the city air back in Jersey. And with a pleasant passing relief, he realizes that his knee no longer aches. 

In fact, not a trace of the All-Valley is left on him. The sweat that had been beading along his brow is gone, not cooled by the wind, but clean as if it had never existed. The various bruises he had felt blooming across his body were gone as well. And his gi had been replaced by a simple white shirt, unstrung at the collar to hang loose around his collarbones, and pants rolled up at the cuff. His hair flopped down his neck and across his forehead, loose and a little wild from the gentle hands of the wind running through it. 

Daniel huffs out a breath, staring out at the picturesque landscape. He thinks distantly back to his last memory, of Johnny’s blue eyes, that strange sparkle in the air, but something repels him. There’s a tightening in his chest and a strong, confusing but unmistakeable feeling of “wrongness”, as if he’s pulling at a string that resents being untied. He frowns and concentrates harder… 

But before he can pull further, there is a loud, angry noise from behind Daniel, and the valley breaks out in a cacophony of movement as if startled by the sound. 

Daniel turns to see a house just over the hill, the noise still echoing out from it, and before he can think he’s running toward the tiny cottage- what if someone needs help? 

As he nears it, he takes in the door left hanging open and the lush garden wrapped in fence. 

“Sir? Ma’am? Are you alright?”

He pushes through the door hesitantly, peeking into the house to see an older man bent over a mess of broken pottery and dirt, a look of frustration on a face so familiar to Daniel that he thought he could have cried with relief at seeing it. 

“Mr. Miyagi!” Daniel rushes over to him, almost embracing him but pulling back at the last minute- there’s a strange shallowness to his mentor’s eyes when he turns that disconcerts him and leaves him unbalanced, uncertain. “Mr. Miyagi, you gotta help me, the craziest thing is happening-”, he cuts himself off. “Did you see it too? That weird mist thing, the way that everyone just froze?”

But the man doesn’t respond, still staring at Daniel with that unnatural dullness to his features. As if he isn’t really seeing Daniel at all. He simply smiles fondly at Daniel, and steps around him to reach for a pair of gardening gloves left on one of the tables. 

“Good evening, Daniel-san. Everything alright?”

Daniel pauses, stutters. “Yeah, Mr. Miyagi, didn’t you hear me? What is this place? What’s going on?” He steps closer, meets Mr. Miyagi’s eyes. “Are you okay?” But the man evades him again, taking in Daniel’s questions with an unsettling lack of acknowledgement. 

“Prize bonsai broken, Daniel-san. No winning competition now.” His smile is bitter and bent, and no matter which version of Mr. Miyagi this is, it still breaks Daniel’s heart a little to see him look anything but happy. Daniel looks to the bonsai on the ground, realizing that the sound he must have heard outside was this pot breaking, throwing the bonsai tree that seems to be the most beautiful and tenderly-cultivated out of the bunch to the stone floor. 

“No, Mr. Miyagi, it’s alright! We’ll fix her up. She’ll be okay.” He walks to the tree and touches a leaf gently. When he turns back to his mentor, Mr. Miyagi’s face has brightened, and the smile he directs towards Daniel is proud enough that it brings a warmth to his chest. And then, all of a sudden, an ache- a sharp stab of “missing” for the real Mr. Miyagi, somewhere in some other realm, or on the other side of this dream, waiting for Daniel to wake up so that he can embrace him and offer that same proud, fond smile. The feeling knocks a quiet gasp out of Daniel, and his eyes start to sting. 

After a few moments, a gentle hand on his shoulder startles Daniel back into reality (whatever reality it was, anyway), and he turns to see Mr. Miyagi standing with his newly-repotted bonsai in his arms, and a hat upon his head. 

“Thank you for encouragement, Daniel-san. Back soon.” His hand lingers for a moment, firm, then pulls away as the man walks toward the door. 

“Whattya mean, back soon? Please, you gotta help me, this is all wrong-”, but Mr. Miyagi is already gone, and that more than anything is what finally makes the tears fall. The real Mr. Miyagi would never leave, Daniel thinks achingly, and he wishes fiercely to be back in his mentor’s dojo with the sun beating down on his shoulders. 

Recovering himself, he wipes his face and resigns himself to finding answers. There has to be somebody, anybody, in this world that remembers who they really are, he thinks, and he’s going to find them. He steps out the front door, and gazes out at the village stretching out before him.


	3. Chapter 3

The breeze is soft and cool as Daniel wanders through the streets of the village. The people are friendly, but their eyes linger on him as he walks past them, and more than once he catches them whispering together as he nears. He frowns, but is too unsettled to approach any of them; he doesn’t recognize any of them like he had Mr. Miyagi. 

Eventually, the streets open up into a wide courtyard, and finally, perched atop the curve of a fountain, is a familiar face. 

“Ali!” Daniel runs toward her. She looks up at his voice and grins, meeting him in the embrace he sweeps her up in. 

“Ali, what is this? Where are we?” But as Daniel looks into her eyes, a gaping horror dawns on him as he sees the same dullness reflected there as he had in Mr. Miyagi’s. She tucks a strand of golden hair back behind her ear. 

“Hello, Daniel. I was just reading. Are you alright?” 

Daniel stumbles past her to sit on the fountain, bewildered and confused. Could it be possible that he really was all alone in this? That no one else understood? Distantly, he glances at Ali’s book left open next to him. Fairy tales, he reads, and then sits up with a shock. The village, the field, the shimmering air and the strange surreal beauty of this place- he reaches for the book and flips through it frantically, and finally, he understands. 

He jumps back up and grabs Ali by the shoulders, spinning her around the courtyard as she laughs giddily. “It’s a fairytale, Ali, just like the stories we read when we were kids, just like those movies!” She only giggles in response and wraps her arms around his neck. 

“Sure, Daniel. That sounds wonderful.” He pauses in his celebration, and they come to a stop. Her face, those freckles and that wide smile, the smell of her hair, the curve of her shoulders- it’s all so familiar, and yet Ali did not have the same understanding of her true self that he did. The thought is troubling, and just as unsettling as everything else about this world has been so far, and Daniel thinks to himself quietly that if Ali is not special, then whose story was it anyway? 

Taking in her face one last time, he finally detaches her arms from his neck and wishes her a soft good-bye. 

“Ali,” he pauses, turning to face her, “take care of yourself, alright?” She simply looks back up from her storybook and smiles at him distantly.

“Sure, Daniel.” 

With the sounds of the fountain bubbling behind him and the townspeople’s eyes on the back of his head, Daniel turns back towards home. Whoever’s home it was, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm only posting the first three chapters, for now. i'll do another three tomorrow. i promise johnny will be here soon!


	4. Chapter 4

The grass is soft beneath Daniel’s feet as he ends up back in that same field he had woken up in, with only slightly more understanding of this reality than he had left with, and even more frustration. He thinks back to what he knows of fairy tales. A glass slipper and pumpkin carriage, a princess locked in a tower, poison apples and dwarves- none of those sounded right.   
There was a nagging feeling at the back of his head, the unsettling feeling of a dream that you can only half-remember when you wake up in the morning. But with each tug on that string, everything began to seem fuzzier and fuzzier, and then, just as before, there was a loud noise from behind and the reverie was shattered. 

“Woah, woah!” His hands come up, and he steps back, wary of the frantic movements of the horse running down the hill toward him. “Woah,” he finally grabs the reins of the horse as it slows in front of him, “what’s wrong with you?” It neighs in distress and noses at Daniel’s shoulder, nudging him towards its empty saddle. 

“What, are you kidding me? I’ve never ridden a horse in my life!” But the horse only grows more frustrated, its pushes at Daniel becoming more determined. Daniel steps further away from it, but then an emblem embroidered onto the side of the saddle catches his eye. It’s a bonsai tree, he realizes with a sinking feeling of despair, just like the one on the back of his gi. “Mr. Miyagi’s in trouble?”, he asks the horse, looking into its wild eyes. It lets out a snort and shoves at Daniel’s chest. He steels himself and eyes the empty saddle. 

“Alright, this can’t be that hard,” he mutters to himself, stepping toward the horse’s side. “You balanced on a boat. You painted fences. You beat Johnny Lawrence, for chrissakes”, he closes in on the horse’s side, “you can get on a horse.” With that he swings up onto the saddle, but even uninjured his leg can only go so far and he hops up and down desperately for a few moments before stumbling off back to the ground. 

After several more tries, he is more determined than ever. He continues rambling under his breath, and makes for the saddle once again. “Maybe if I get a running start,” he muses, but the horse’s face snaps toward him as if it understands him and is not happy about the prospect of 69 inches of gangly teenager throwing itself at its side, and finally the thing takes pity on him and kneels to the ground. 

“Couldn’t have done that earlier?” he says spitefully as he climbs up, but the horse only snorts again before kicking off into a gallop that leaves Daniel clinging onto the reins for dear life.


	5. Chapter 5

The sun is long gone now, and the branches of the trees crawl out across the sky above Daniel’s head like a grotesque spiderweb as they fly through the woods. The horse’s hooves beat against the ground, loud and rough, and Daniel’s tailbone aches where the saddle presses against it. And, he still has no idea where they are going. He reassures himself that, if this is some great cosmic trick and the universe is making him play out whatever story this is, then they’ll end up where they have to go- besides, people don’t get murdered in Disney movies, right? Not good people, at least. Mr. Miyagi would be okay. And maybe Johnny Lawrence would get turned into a frog or something, Daniel thought to himself amusedly. 

But all fantasies of divine anti-Johnny punishment fade when the horse finally clears the oppressive landscape of the woods, and a massive, dark castle comes into view. Daniel’s jaw drops. As the horse nears the gates, its steps become more and more hesitant, until finally the movement of the gate blowing in the strong wind spooks it and it jumps back. Patting it gently in a half-hearted attempt to console it, Daniel half-falls, half-climbs off its side. Realizing belatedly that he has no means of tying it to the fence or to anything else, he walks around to its front to look at the horse’s face and tell it, with great seriousness, to stay. Or else. 

That accomplished, Daniel turns to the castle and gulps. Out of the cover of the woods, the rain beats down upon him and a particularly-loud rumble of thunder makes him jump. But Mr. Miyagi was in there, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Mr. Miyagi, whichever version of him this was; and this is what resolves him to begin walking toward the grand entrance. If only he could remember which fairy tale this was, he wishes, making eye contact with one of the gargoyles lining the walkway.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the last few chapters were short (my chapter marks are arbitrary and random, and i could probably condense them into longer chapters with more breaks but it's too late now), so here's a longer one to make up for it. *insert obligatory "here's johhnny!" joke*

“Hello?” Daniel’s voice echoed through the empty hall. The door creaked on its hinges behind him, closing slowly to drown the last vestiges of soft light pouring in from outside and leaving Daniel in total darkness. The floor was dusty, and the place seemed abandoned, but he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful it was- in its own way. The walls were draped in ornate weavings and embellishments, and the carved sculptures were amazingly detailed (even as they snarled down with expressions of misery and rage on their faces). “Anyone home?” 

But there was no answer to Daniel’s calls. The wind whipped outside, and the whole castle seemed to thrum gently with a furious anxiety, like every brick in the walls was crying out in despair all at once. It was unsettling, and it made Daniel’s skin crawl, but he thought again of Mr. Miyagi and crept forward up the stairs hesitantly. 

It felt like he had been wandering through the maze of the castle for years. Perhaps he would never find his way out again, he thought, maybe this wasn’t a fairy tale but rather a horror story about people getting murdered by chainsaw-wielding vampire princes.Then, from somewhere off to the side, there was a sudden clamor, and a glimpse of candlelight. Daniel rushed towards it. “Hello? Who was that?”

Following the faint noises that led him further and further into the castle, Daniel felt his hands begin to tremble, and he shivered in his rain-soaked clothes and the relentless biting cold of the stone walls. “I’m looking for an older man, my friend. Please, I just need to find him, and then I’ll leave.” But there was still no answer. 

“Please!” He was wet, and cold, and frustrated, and he just wanted to go home. He walked faster, desperate to end this twisted game and see this mystery person face-to-face. Finally, at an almost-run, the winding hall opened up into a sprawling dungeon and Daniel stumbled forward into it. And there, in one of the cells, was Mr. Miyagi. Daniel’s heart dropped into his stomach. 

“Mr. Miyagi!” he ran forward and threw himself against the bars, “are you alright? I’m going to get you out of here, I promise,” and pulled at the door futilely. The man sat still against the wall, but there was a quiet fear in his eyes that hurt to see as he leaned toward Daniel. 

“Daniel-san,” he said, clasping Daniel’s hands urgently, but then broke off into a fit of coughing, “must leave.” Daniel froze.

“What are you talking about, I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving you,” he said, rambling hysterically to himself more than Mr. Miyagi. “I’m not leaving, I’m not leaving. We’re going home.” But the grip on his wrist tightened, and when Daniel looked to his face again Mr. Miyagi’s eyes had widened. There was a loud noise behind Daniel’s shoulder as the door was thrown open.

“Daniel-san, go!” 

And then, a hand on Daniel’s shoulder, throwing him hard against the wall, and a roaring voice. 

“What are you doing here?” it growled, “you must leave.” Daniel picked himself up from the floor, wincing at the pain in his shoulder, but the ache seemed to numb as he looked towards the creature pacing across the room. It was not human, not like anything he had ever seen. Daniel’s eyes went wide. It was tall, looming over him, and as it swiped angrily at the air between them with a clawed hand muscles rippled under the surface of its golden-furred skin. Daniel stepped back, despite himself. He examined it another long moment, then pulled his eyes away from its strange form and focused. 

Steeling himself, he narrowed his eyes and looked up towards its face, although the features were drowned in the shadow pooling through the dark dungeon. 

“I’m not leaving here without my friend. He’s sick, and he needs help.” His whole body felt fraught with frantic energy, and the room pulsed with the static electricity that had seemed to fill up the air whenever Daniel stepped into the ring with an opponent. But this was a fight he wasn’t going to win, Daniel knew, and in his condition Mr. Miyagi wasn’t going to be any help either. If the old man even remembered how to fight in this fantasy world, anyway. 

The creature spoke again, its voice echoing through the room. “Your friend was trespassing here, and you are too. He’s my prisoner,” Daniel stepped forward indignantly at that, “and you will be too if you aren’t careful.” 

“You can’t do that,” Daniel responsed, voice rising and hands beginning to form into fists at his sides, “we’re leaving.” The creature growled again, whirling around so the cape draped around its broad shoulders whipped past Daniel’s face. 

“I am the master of this castle,” the creature roared, “and you are trespassing.” Daniel started at the creature’s back unflinchingly. He looked back at Mr. Miyagi, pale and shivering on the floor of the cell, and he knew with every fiber of his being that there was no universe in existence where Daniel would not do anything to make up for everything his friend had given him and done for him. Whatever world this was, whatever story- Daniel owed Mr. Miyagi that much. 

He stepped forward, into the thin stream of light filtering in from the ceiling of the dungeon. His voice was firm- only a hint of fear wavering beneath it. “Take me instead.”

The creature turned back to him, sharp teeth glinting from its jaw and chest heaving with enraged breath. It scoffed, a raw animalistic growl that sounded like a blade being sharpened against stone. “You?” It regarded him for a moment from its shelter among the swirling shadows. Whatever it saw seemed to make it falter; when it spoke again its voice was quieter and almost uncertain. “You would give yourself in his place?”

Daniel stared into the dark pool of shadow that covered the creature’s face, disguising its features. “If I do,” Daniel’s voice broke, “If I do, will you let him go?” His fists trembled at his sides. The cold of the dungeon seemed to creep into his bones even further than before. There was a quiet moaning sound outside, likely from the wind, but for a moment it seemed as if the whole castle was wailing in torment. 

The creature faltered again, its rough voice coming haltingly. Its very posture seemed tormented. “You have to understand, you will be my prisoner. You will never leave. You will never see your friend again.” 

Daniel felt more than he heard the presence of Mr. Miyagi behind him, and he nodded. “Just let him go.” 

Taking in the determined set of Daniel’s jaw and his words, the creature seemed to become momentarily overwhelmed by the conflict warring inside of it, as if Daniel’s presence had pierced it to its core. It swiped at the walls angrily, letting out a guttural roar, and when it turned to them again it growled almost desperately, “Daniel, no.” 

With the sound of his name, Daniel’s eyes widened. There was that tug in his chest, that unmistakable tension in the back of his head. There’s something you’re forgetting, Daniel. There’s something wrong. Something wrong, Daniel, something wrong… 

This creature- there was something about it, something familiar, something that made his heart beat faster in his chest. And the way it had said his name… as if it truly knew him, so unlike the blank-eyed stares of Ali or even the quiet passivity of Mr. Miyagi that was so strange to Daniel. What are you forgetting, Daniel?

“Come into the light.” 

At Daniel’s command, the creature slowly breached that tense space between them where the moonlight pooled in from the night sky, its clawed feet scratching along the stone floor. Its golden fur shone dully, its body wrapped in tattered clothes and a long cape that did little to disguise its size or the nature of its form. But most striking of all were its eyes, those blue eyes alight with some strange mix of fear and fury, so familiar…

“Johnny?” Daniel’s voice dropped low, incredulous. 

Johnny- somehow, his Johnny- flinched back like it had been struck and growled again, sweeping past Daniel back into the shadow. “Well,” he said, angrily, broad shoulders heaving, “are you ready to leave now?”

Daniel dropped to his knees besides Mr. Miyagi again, reaching through the bars to hold his mentor’s hands in his own. “Daniel-san, don’t,” the man said, eyes shining, “Go home.” 

Daniel’s heart ached in his chest, but that restless feeling that told him there was something about this world that was hidden from him was pulling him towards the creature across the room, the string in the back of his mind leading him here. There was an unmistakable certainty in his gut that told him this was the right choice. Somehow, Johnny was the key to all of this. Somehow, he was different. Daniel rested his head against the bars of the cell for a moment, then turned and stepped back into the light. 

“Johnny,” he called out softly into the darkness, “Johnny, come here.” The boy in the body of a beast drew himself up stiff with tension, across the room, but he obeyed and crept slowly back toward Daniel. 

Bathed in the light, they regarded each other for a moment. “Johnny, I’m staying.”   
Johnny’s eyes went wide in shock, and for a moment Daniel felt a strange jolt of electricity- as if something had just woken up, or a long chain of events had been set in motion- and then a sudden coldness snapped down across Johnny’s eyes, and he was pushing past Daniel to unlock the cell and pull Mr. Miyagi out. 

Daniel reached for the man as he passed, but Johnny was shoving him ahead unceremoniously. Daniel felt the anger that had been numbed by shock rekindle in his chest, and he pulled roughly at the muscle and fur of Johnny’s shoulder. “Hey, watch it,” he snapped, “don’t touch him.” 

At the feel of Daniel’s grip, Johnny jolted, and whirled back to face him. Their eyes locked once again, Johnny’s clawed hands digging into the skin of Daniel’s wrists and Mr. Miyagi frozen at the bottom of the stairs. Johnny’s eyes were wide and awash in clarity when he looked down at the blood beading on Daniel’s skin, and he stumbled back like he had been burned. “LaRusso,” he said, urgently, leaning forward as if desperate to be near Daniel but afraid to touch him. “LaRusso, what’s going on?” 

Then, there were voices echoing from down the stairs and Mr. Miyagi was being pulled away by some unseen force. Daniel looked back at Johnny bewilderdly, but the other boy had gone cold and rough again, and in his retreat from the dungeon the door locked loudly behind him to leave Daniel in complete darkness.

Daniel sank quietly to the floor and buried his head in his hands.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> got impatient and i'm posting this early lmao. the delirium of writing 7000 words in 24 hours has worn off and i'm now recognizing this isn't actually that well-written. oh well. hope you guys are enjoying it anyway! also i just figured out how to italicize text in ao3 so go me

After some amount of time had passed, although Daniel had no idea how much, the door of the dungeon banged open again and a cold chill swept into the room. Daniel jumped to his feet.

“What’s wrong with you, huh? I knew you were an asshole; I didn’t know you were crazy,” Daniel shouted, “but I guess I shoulda figured, with your sensei being the way he is.” A wave of righteous fury washed over him, and he took it in stride, pushing down the part of him that wanted to cry. “What do you want, Johnny?”

Johnny was hunched over himself, fists clenched. His hands must be all cut up from his claws, Daniel thought distantly. “LaRusso, I don’t get it either,” he scowled, striding across the room to meet Daniel, “I just woke up here, like…” and he gestured at himself, “ _this_.” His eyes were stormy like the night outside. “And there’s this feeling, in my head…”, he broke off, biting out the words like he couldn’t find the right ones.

“Like a dream you can’t remember.”

Johnny’s gaze snapped back towards him. “Yeah, like that.”

“So, what, you didn’t mean to throw my sensei in your prison cell? It’s all some big cosmic trick forcing you to act like an even bigger douchebag than usual?”

“LaRusso,” Johnny growled out, “I don’t know what’s happening, but no one else seems to know who they are except for me and you. So if you want a chance of getting back to our real lives, you might want to have some self-preservation.”

“What, is the kitty going to use his claws?”, Daniel taunted, pushing forward into Johnny’s face, “maybe you really are a beast.”

With his own words, Daniel’s eyes widened in realization. “That’s it, Johnny. It’s _Beauty and the Beast_ ,” he said, eyes darting around the room. “That’s the story we’re in.”

Johnny’s eyes were blank. He took in Daniel’s rapid speech and hand movements dully.

“Are you kidding me, you never saw _Beauty and the Beast_?”

“I’m not a _girl_ , LaRusso.”

Daniel ignored him and continued pacing around the room. “The field, the castle, the horse,”- Johnny interjected, “ _you_ rode a horse?”- “the dungeon,” and he whirled back torwards Johnny with a finger pointed at his chest, “and the beast.” Johnny flinched minutely, but Daniel barely noticed, too caught up in the euphoria of his realization.

“Alright, genius. If you’re so smart, then what happens next? How do we get out?”

Daniel furrowed his brow. “I… I don’t remember.”

“What do you mean you don’t remember? I thought you were the expert,” Johnny said, but he quieted when he saw Daniel’s fingers press at his temples. “It’s the story,” he said as realization dawned on him, “you can’t remember because the story, our story, doesn’t want you to. Just like it wanted me to throw your sensei out. Just like they told me to come up here.”

Daniel looked back up at him. “ _Who_ told you?”

It was indiscernable beneath the heavy layer of fur that covered Johnny’s face, but Daniel could almost imagine he was blushing anyway. “The…,” he faltered, “the furniture.”

Daniel whooped out a quiet laugh. Oh, this was better than being turned into a frog- Johnny making small talk with the tables and chairs, pulling his whole macho-tough-guy act on the silverware. Maybe he’d find a mop to lay into for washing his favorite floor.

“Shut up, LaRusso,” Johnny growled, turning back towards the door. “I was supposed to bring you to a real room.”

Daniel whistled. “Wow, you really know how to make a guy feel special, Johnny.” But he followed Johnny back out through the winding hallways, an ornate candelabra gripped tightly in his clawed hand illuminating the dusty castle that sprawled out in front of them.

They fell silent again, the brief moment of solidarity born out of Daniel’s realization fading fast. “So, do you got any ideas in that big head of yours about getting out of here, or is it just empty space?”

Johnny’s shoulders stiffened again. “Is it even possible for you to not be annoying, or is it just your default setting?”

“Just part of the charm, I guess,” Daniel responded. “Well?”

“I told you I don’t know anything. Lay off.”

“Oh, so I guess it’s up to little old me to solve this on my own, then,” Daniel said more to the echoing halls than to Johnny himself. “Let me know if you’re planning on not being entirely useless.”

When Johnny turned back towards him, the strange inhuman-ness of his features seemed even more pronounced in the dark, and he looked disconcertingly similar to the gargoyles that adorned the walls. But his eyes just looked tired. With every moment that coldness that had captured him in the dungeon was returning, and the brief hints of uncertainty that Daniel had seen before were lost. Johnny stared straight ahead again. After a few more hallways, he spoke again.

“You can go anywhere you like while you’re here,” he growled out, “except for the West Wing.”

“What’s in the West Wing?”

The answering roar was raw, and rough, and loud, and despite himself, Daniel flinched back. Maybe he really is a beast, Daniel thought. “The West Wing is forbidden,” Johnny said, his eyes like shards of dark ice with the firelight of the candles dancing in them, “and you will not ask me again.”

Daniel’s gaze hardened and he stared miserably at Johnny’s back. If he was going to be like this the whole time, then it really was up to Daniel to get them out of here. Figures.

Finally, they reached a door that Johnny opened to reveal a large, ornately-furnished bedroom, and he pushed Daniel inside roughly. There was the sound of a whisper from behind Daniel, but he hardly noticed it as he took in the grandiosity of the room in front of him. Then, Johnny’s voice was loud and rough in his ear, growling out, “you will come to dinner tonight.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “That a question?”

Johnny’s inhuman features curved into a sneer. “It’s an order.” The door slammed shut behind him, and once again Daniel was left in the darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i made bobby the teapot next question

Daniel had been exploring his room for the better part of the last hour, rifling through the fancy clothes in the wardrobe and opening all the drawers. He pulled out a royal blue suit, embroidered with beautiful swirls of silver that looked like constellations dancing across the fabric, and as he ran a hand over it hesitantly he was stunned at how soft the cloth felt. He scoffed and placed it back inside the closet (more gently than he had intended to, intrinsically unwilling to damage the precious thing he was holding even when overcome by spite). “Well, that’s a little overkill.” 

He let out a bored sigh and flopped back onto the bed miserably. He missed his mother, and Mr. Miyagi, and his real bed back at home. And despite it all, he couldn’t get Johnny’s face out of his head. But it was this Johnny, not the real Johnny- not human Johnny- that he saw when he closed his eyes, and because of that Daniel tried all the harder to hold onto the memories he had of Johnny’s real face. 

He concentrated, grasping for that image of Johnny, sprawled out on the mat below him, with that uncertain and fearful (though he tried to hide it) expression on his face, and those wide blue eyes, and Daniel held on tight to it when he found it. There was something else about this story, something sinister, and though whatever motivation it had was unknown to Daniel, he knew that it did not want him to remember where he had come from. 

But what did it want? If this was a fairytale, there must be some message, some lesson to learn: but for who, him or Johnny? It would be just his luck, Daniel thought, to be the collateral damage in some cosmic anti-bullying seminar aimed at Johnny by the universe. But why them? With seemingly no reason, Daniel suddenly thought of Ali, blissfully unaware in the town square with her book and her shining hair, and wondered why she wasn’t here in his place. 

He was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of the door creaking open. As he creeped toward it hesitantly to peek around the corner, he was startled by a clinking noise near his feet. Looking down in surprise, he jumped back, nearly tripping over an ornate teapot sitting just outside the door. 

“Hey, watch it!”, it says, frowning up at him. 

Daniel stares at it for a moment, frozen. “Oh,” he finally replies, “you must be the talking furniture Johnny didn’t bother to introduce me to.” 

The teapot bristled at that insult to the master of the castle, then seemed to visibly calm itself. “We thought you might like some tea. Well?” Daniel nods, uncertaintly. 

The teapot whistles from its spout, and a small teacup bounces in from behind the door, allowing itself to be filled with tea. Daniel lifts it to his lips hesitantly. The teapot seems pleased with Daniel’s willingness to accept their hospitality, and when it speaks again its tone is warmer. 

“My name is Bobby Brown,” the teapot says, “and we’re all very pleased that you’re here.”

“Bobby?” Daniel says incredulously. “You wouldn’t happen to do karate as a side gig when you’re not pouring tea, would you?” The teapot gives the distinct impression of wrinkling its brow at him and ignores the comment. 

“You should get dressed for dinner, Daniel. The master doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

His words are harsh, just like the boy himself was back in real life, but when Bobby sees the angry, fearful look on Daniel’s face, he pauses. “I know he can be intimidating, but you really don’t need to be afraid of him.”

“I’m not afraid of him,” Daniel grumbles, “like I’d ever be afraid of Johnny Lawrence. Afraid he’d bore me to death with his stupid insults and dumb face, more like.” 

Bobby somehow conveys a fondly exasperated expression on his face as he looks up at Daniel. “Everything will work out in the end, Daniel. You’ll feel better after dinner.” 

The door clicks shut behind Bobby, and Daniel resolutely does not look at the wardrobe. There’s no way in hell he’s going to dinner with Johnny, and if that lunatic wants him there that badly he can come and drag Daniel down the stairs himself. 


End file.
